Esailama Artry-Diouf, Ph.D.

Founding Director, Bisemi, Inc.

Esailama Artry-Diouf, Ph.D. is the Founding Director of Bisemi Inc. and Program Associate for the City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program. She currently proudly serves on the Board of Directors for the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA), the Silicon Valley African Film Festival and for over 15 years the Director of Communications for Danny Glover, actor/activist and Ambassador for the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent. As a scholar and artists she has lectured in the United States and conducted long–term residencies in India, South Africa, Cuba, Barbados and Trinidad-Tobago. Esailama is also the co-editor of a forthcoming volume entitled African Dance in America: Indelible Stories of Hot Feet, Perpetual Motion, and Social Change.

Much of Esailama’s work as an arts administrator, scholar and advocate explores challenges and solutions for cultural artists in the 21st century: the relevance of cultural arts to policymakers and philanthropists; the establishment of developmental resources for the next generation of artists and arts administrators; the continued vitality of cultural arts for marginalized communities in the United States; and the importance of cultural arts in conversations about the cultural economy, place-making, restorative justice, and community inclusion..